The proposed C3S ECV production system will be extended from the current Soil Moisture (SM) Essential Climate Variable (ECV) Production and Development System developed under ESA’s CCI programmes, currently maintained by EODC, and implemented by all partners in this proposal, and will focus on increasing the product production cycle. It shall, in the first place, be able to respond to the latest requirements from ECMWF and the user community at large (including e.g. climate monitoring, climate modelling, and policy implementation users).

Two processing cycles are proposed within the two-year period, to obtain maximum accuracy and timeliness of data availability: the “reprocessing” cycle will be run every six months and use the latest reprocessed L1 and L2 datasets to produce a product with the highest possible accuracy. The resulting “reprocessing product” will form the basis of the “extended product” produced every 10 days. This “extended product” will be able to respond to urgent requests in the case of extreme events, e.g. droughts. These requirements can evolve during the course of the project. Hence, C3S ECV Soil Moisture will continuously review and build on the latest requirements from the climate user community and other potential users of the soil moisture CDR products.